Jo Cox To Be Remembered With 'Great Get Together' Events, Launched By Jamie Oliver And Duchess Of Cornwall

Her husband says there could be 'no more fitting tribute'.

Tens of thousands of community get-togethers will be held in memory of Jo Cox later this year, in what organisers say could be the biggest event of its kind since the Queen’s diamond Jubilee in 2012.

The Great Get Together, which will take place on the weekend of June 17 and 18, has been put together by The Jo Cox Foundation and The Big Lunch along with dozens of other community groups.

The event will be launched by the Duchess of Cornwall and Jamie Oliver, among others, it was announced on Wednesday.

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Community events will be held around the country in memory of Jo Cox

Cox, who was Labour MP for Batley and Spen, was murdered outside her constituency office in Birstall, West Yorkshire, on June 16 last year.

The event is designed to bring people together within communities and Cox’s widower, Brendan, said there could be “no more fitting tribute” to his wife than an event with this aim.

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that rather than a “solemn” commemoration, his family wanted the event to reflect Cox’s “dynamism and joy at life”.

He said: “I think we’re tapping into something here, we’re not creating something from scratch. I think there is a huge desire for many people who are frankly a bit sick of the tone of some of the political debates, this sense that we’re all supposed to hate each other and actually just want an excuse to come back together.

“When you provide people with that opportunity, whether that’s the Olympics or the Jubilee, people seize it, and we hope this is just one of those opportunities.

“The reason that we’re aiming for the scale we’re aiming for is not just for a pretty number but actually so that we do bring communities together who might feel that tension because I think one of the things that actually unites people across the political divide is there is a sense that close communities are absolutely the bedrock of our country.

“If communities are atomised - whether that’s because we’re in our social media bubbles or because we don’t see each other, if people are lonely, if they don’t know their neighbours - that undermines the fabric of our country.

“So we think there is this desire that actually people want to know the names of their neighbours, they want their kids to play on their street and so we think this is an opportunity to do that.”